Garment, in particular for a human body

ABSTRACT

Garment, in particular for a human body, includes several sections connected together and are each made of one or more plies. For one ply in each case, such a fabric is usable for the sections that the, in particular, human body is shielded from electromagnetic radiation thereby. This at least one ply is advantageously knitted or woven from a fabric made of metal-coated threads, filaments and/or yarns for shielding the electromagnetic radiation. In this way, the human body is shielded from the electromagnetic fields that occur increasingly frequently and with greater intensity, in particular in the high-frequency range.

The invention relates to a garment, in particular for a human body, which is composed of several sections that are connected together and are each made of one or more plies.

It is known that there is ever more impact upon the environment due to the electromagnetic radiation waves which occur increasingly frequently and with greater intensity, which radiation waves have to be generated for the transmission of signals for mobile telephones, wireless devices, radio telephones etc.

As one possibility for providing protection against this electric smog, cloth fabrics are known with thin conductive wires made of silver, copper or steel which are spun into threads. However, a disadvantage of this type is that when such cloth fabrics are used in clothes with an increasing service life, the wires may break due to continuous wearing and washing. Corrosion is also generated here by washing and by perspiration, and this may result in weak points and once again in premature breakage of the wire filaments. Consequently, any protective effect against electric smog is largely lost, and in addition the broken, small, thin wire tips may cause at the very least unpleasant irritation points when they come into contact with the skin. With these metal wires the garments are very prone to creasing because the wires are plastically deformed when the material is bent.

When using steel as the wire, it is generally produced from stainless steel which contains nickel and zinc. When wearing garments with this type of fabric, this often results in skin allergies. A similar thing happens when copper is used.

Another disadvantage of these materials arises due to the effect of the wires upon the skin due to the high-frequency waves. The depth of the material used can be calculated from the respective frequency of the waves that occur, the conductivity of the shielding material that is used and the vacuum permeability. The material beneath the penetration depth of the waves does not contribute to the shielding and is therefore useless. For this reason the wire shielding is considerably poorer at higher frequencies, such as for example 5.6 GHz, which the new Wi-Fi routers use, than at 1 GHz.

In contrast, the object of the present invention is to devise a garment by means of which in particular at least certain parts of the human body are largely protected against electromagnetic radiation, and this garment is comfortable to wear and has a sufficient service life.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by the features of Claim 1.

Since a fabric is respectively used for at least one ply of at least one specific section, by means of which shielding from electromagnetic radiation of, in particular, the human body is achieved, this type of garment according to the invention offers maximum protection against electric smog and is nevertheless pleasant to wear, and it can also be cleaned like conventional laundry.

Very advantageously, this at least one ply with this shielding protective effect is produced from a fabric made of metal-coated threads, filaments and/or yarns, silver or aluminum or alloys thereof advantageously being used as the metal. With silver one also has the additional advantage of an anti-bacterial effect due to very large silver surface areas.

By taking this measure, the best results are achieved for shielding the human body from the electromagnetic fields that occur increasingly frequently and with greater intensity, in particular in the high-frequency range.

As another embodiment according to the invention, these threads, filaments and/or yarns of the fabric provided with a surface layer of metal are coated with an outer protective layer of a preferably elastic plastic. These metal coatings are thus additionally protected against abrasion and oxidation.

Further advantageous details of this garment within the framework of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention and further advantages of the same are explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings. These show as follows:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a jacket with a section of the outer ply;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an under-garment with a section of the outer and the middle ply;

FIG. 3 is a view of an enlarged portion of a version of a knitted fabric according to the invention with integrated filaments;

FIG. 4 are views of, in each case, a portion of a knitted fabric according to the invention with 4 or 400-times enlargement; and

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the screening behavior of materials with insulated contact between the filaments.

FIG. 1 shows a jacket 10 as a garment for a human body which can be provided for a female or a male person. Needless to say, such garments are suitable for adults, children or also for babies.

This jacket 10 is made up of several sections 11, 12, 13 that are connected together and are each made of two plies. It can be closed, for example, by a zip fastener 14, as shown, or it can accordingly be opened by the latter. Furthermore, zip fasteners 17 are indicated beneath the sleeves, which zip fasteners can be opened so as to enable cooling within the jacket. The shielding material is maintained beneath such ventilating zip fasteners, and so is protective.

According to the invention, the inner ply 15, which does not lie directly against the skin of the human body in a jacket 10, is formed from this fabric 15 which shields from electromagnetic radiation and on the outside from at least one ply 16 made of a cloth fabric and/or a moisture or wind-impermeable plastic layer. It may also be a layer that specifically repels rain or water.

Advantageously, the inner ply 15 extends over the entire inner surface of the jacket 10, i.e. over the front side 11, the non-visible rear side, at the top on the collar and on the sleeves 12. In addition, these inner plies 15 are arranged so as to overlap on the seams 11′ at the cross-over from the front 11 to the rear side. Along the zip fastener 14 too, a strip 18 covering the latter on the inside is connected to one section 11 which is also provided with a shielding inner ply 15 so that absolute tightness is also provided on this zip fastener 14.

Moreover, conventional pockets 19 are provided on the front sections 11 of the jacket 10. Advantageously, shielding fabric is not assigned to each of the outer wall sections so that if a mobile telephone is placed therein, the mobile telephone is connected to the network and calls can be received, but protection against the rays is advantageously provided towards the body by a double ply.

Moreover, the jacket 10 could also be equipped with a hood (not shown) which would also advantageously be provided with an inner ply 15 with the shielding fabric 15. In addition, an inner liner, for example made of wool, could also be sewn into this hood, but also into the inside of the jacket, which could serve the purpose of providing insulation against the cold, touch comfort or a moisture management function.

This fabric 15 that provides shielding from the electric smog is advantageously tightly woven or knitted from metal-coated yarns such that the light meshes are reduced from 4 mm to almost zero so that almost 100% impermeability to electromagnetic waves is achieved.

The yarns are provided here with a thin surface layer made of metal, preferably silver or aluminum, by means of which electrical conductivity is provided, by means of which shielding from electromagnetic waves up to a frequency range of 0.8 to 15 GHz is guaranteed.

As another embodiment within the framework of the invention, the yarns of the shielding fabric provided with a surface layer made of metal could be coated with an outer protective layer made of a preferably elastic plastic.

This outer protective layer is preferably provided so that if there is corrosion of the metal during use, no or only a slight color change of the at least one section 11, 12, 13 takes place.

Furthermore, the protective layer protects against mechanical wear, extreme bending or alternating bending of the filaments or yarns. The protective layer therefore results in a greatly longer service life of the materials. In addition, the production costs for the materials are reduced because one only needs to apply the minimally required coating thickness. With the metallization and the choice of metal, the color of the material is automatically retained. With the additional protective layer one can add color pigments, and so change the color of the material, and this makes things easier when designing the garment. Due to the metal base, the colors will appear to be far lighter and clearer than, for example, with normally dyed nylon material. If tiny particles of silver are added in addition to the color pigments, one will obtain this antibacterial surface.

According to FIG. 2, a pair of underpants 20 is illustrated as a garment. According to the invention, these are made in three layers with an inner ply 21 with a cloth fabric, above this with a ply 25 made of the fabric coated with metal, and on the outside with a ply 23 made of a conventional fabric, as is illustrated by the section. At least in the genital area, these three plies are arranged as shown. In principle, the underpants 20 could be provided overall with these three plies or they could also be produced entirely from the protective ply 25.

These several sections 22, 23, 24 with, in each case, several plies are stitched or adhered to one another depending on what materials are used. They are stitched or adhered or connected to one another in some other way so that the garment behaves like a single-ply garment. In order to achieve this, the elasticity and the thickness must be taken into account in the sewing design of the cutting pattern.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 each show a portion of a knitted fabric 30, 40. In the knitted fabric 30, filaments 31, 32 arranged parallel to one another are integrated with a horizontal and vertical alignment. This enables problem-free conveyance and shielding of the electromagnetic radiating waves.

In the knitted fabric 40 according to FIG. 4, the filaments 41 are illustrated with the metal layer and a transparent outer protective layer, within the framework of the invention these filaments 41 being able to be bent around very narrow radii without the metal layer thus being torn.

In order to ensure sufficient conductivity and so the electromagnetic protective effect when using outer protective layers over the metal layers of the filaments, the sections can be connected to one another by sufficient overlapping of their edges or also by forming contact of the conductive layers on these edges.

This can also take place by fusing the outer protective layers, for example by means of a hot pressing roller or an ultrasonic pressing roller. By means of the contact pressure applied by the roller to the edges of the sections, at the same time adhesion of the latter to one another can be generated. This is implemented such that the filaments, and so the metal layers of the two sections, touch, and so shielding is also guaranteed at these cross-over points of the sections.

When producing the coating with the metal, for example of the fabric of the ply 25, provision is made within the framework of the invention such that the surface resistance of this fabric exceeds no more than 2 Ohms so that sufficient shielding is guaranteed, but no unnecessary over-thickening of the layer has to be produced.

With this, the surface resistance ρ_(o) in Ohms, which determines the conduction behavior of thin layers, which are the same or very similar in the vertical and the horizontal direction, can be calculated by the following formula:

ρ_(o)=ρ_(s) A/πDs

the individual values being defined as follows:

-   ρ_(s) describes the material purely with Ohm/m or the resistance per     metre length of a filament, -   A is the distance between the threads, filaments or yarns which run     parallel to one another in the transverse or longitudinal direction, -   D corresponds to the outside diameter without an additional     protective layer; and -   s corresponds to the layer thickness of the metal of the individual     threads, filaments or yarns which are smaller than or equal to the     skin effect depth at the frequency being considered.

Thus, the surface resistance for the fabric to be used for the ply 25 can be established and can be appropriately interpreted for a specific application. Moreover, the minimum dimension for the layer thickness d of the metal can be calculated for specific frequencies. The skin effect of the conductive material can be taken into account here depending on the application. At a frequency of 1 GHz for pure aluminum metallization of a filament a skin depth of 8.3 μm is produced, and at a frequency of 6 GHz a skin depth of 3.4 μm. It is thus demonstrated that the wires are far too big for the use of microwave shields.

A specific amount of carbon particles or similar can be contained in the plastic material of the protective layer as semi-conductive material, by means of which an electrical conductivity can be generated. The garment 10 can thus be provided with an antistatic effect. With silver particles, one would achieve the same effect as with carbon, but there would be an even greater antibacterial effect upon the surface. Another design of the protective layer could also be made of the known material composed of conductive polymers which do not require any filler particles for conductivity.

When using such semi-conductive particles in the protective layer, at the contact points of the filaments or the like, electrons can be exchanged between the latter when electromagnetic radiation occurs. In order to approximately determine the conductivity of this type of protective layer, one can base this on a calculation of the number of contacts per surface area.

When integrating pigments into the plastic material of the protective layer, such as for example carbon lamella particles in an amount such that the distance between the lamellae is very small, a reduced conductivity can be achieved, while with mutual touching of these lamellae, the conductivity is increased.

The diagram according to FIG. 5 illustrates the shielding behavior (Transmission T, Reflexion R, Absorption A, Transmission TdB relative to intensity) of materials with insulated contact between the filaments relative to the actual area conductance value taking into account the skin depth for the respective frequency. From this diagram, one can deduce that if one increases the surface resistance from one to two Ohms, taking into account the possible utilization of the conductive cross-section based on the skin effect depth, the shielding is not doubled, but rather the damping increases by 10 dB.

The reason for the better shielding of the metal-coated filament with the same or a lower portion of metal per material is based on the shielding fabric mostly consisting to a large extent of the metal-coated filaments. If the effect of the skin effect is additionally taken into account, more conductive material is available at high frequencies, and this results in better shielding. For this reason, the metallization is also over-thickened here in order to achieve a longer service life.

Needless to say, the invention can be applied to a wide variety of versions of garments for adults as well as for the smallest of children, and also to a wide variety of fabric types which are also, for example, crease-free or self-ironing.

In the broadest sense of the invention, a duvet cover, a bed canopy or the like, in which in each case at least one ply is integrated with the fabric, by means of which shielding from electromagnetic radiation of in particular the human body, could also be understood to be garments.

In principle, threads, filaments or yarns, which are produced at least partially from metal wires and/or from materials containing carbon or other electrically conductive materials, could also be used.

It is also conceivable for the sections of a garment to be produced with a fine-mesh net made of very thin metallized filaments adhered to the fabric in order to achieve the shielding effect. 

1. A garment, in particular for a human body, which is composed of several sections (11, 12, 13, 22, 24) that are connected together and are each made of one or more plies (15, 16, 21, 23, 25), characterized in that for respectively at least one ply (15, 25) of at least one specific section (11, 12, 13, 22, 24) a fabric can be used such that with the latter shielding of, in particular, the human body, from electromagnetic radiation waves is achieved.
 2. The garment according to claim 1, characterized in that this at least one ply (15, 25) is knitted or woven from a fabric made of metal-coated threads, filaments and/or yarns for the shielding from electromagnetic radiation.
 3. The garment according to claim 2, characterized in that the fabric is woven or knitted densely so that the light meshes are reduced to almost zero so that almost 100% impermeability to electromagnetic waves is achieved.
 4. The garment according to claim 2, wherein the threads, filaments and/or yarns are provided with a thin surface layer made of metal, preferably silver or aluminum, by means of which electrical conductivity is provided, by means of which shielding from electromagnetic waves up to a frequency range of 15 GHz is guaranteed.
 5. The garment according to claim 2, wherein the threads, filaments and/or yarns of the fabric provided with at least one surface layer made of metal are coated with at least one outer protective layer made of a preferably elastic plastic.
 6. The garment according to claim 5, characterized in that the outer protective layer made of a plastic material is provided such that if the metal corrodes with use, no or only a slight color change or wear of the at least one section (11, 12, 13, 22, 24) takes place.
 7. The garment according to claim 5, wherein a specific amount of semi-conductive material, such as carbon particles or a conductive polymer or silver particles, is contained in the plastic material of the protective layer so that electrical conductivity of the latter can be generated.
 8. The garment according to claim 1, wherein the conduction behavior of the respective surface layer made of metal can be calculated by means of a surface resistance (ρo) in Ohms by the following formula: ρo=ρsA/πDs the individual values being defined as follows: ρs describes the material purely with Ohm/m or the resistance per metre length of a filament, A is the distance between the threads, filaments or yarns which run parallel to one another in the transverse or longitudinal direction, D corresponds to the outside diameter without an additional protective layer; and s corresponds to the layer thickness of the metal of the individual threads, filaments or yarns.
 9. The garment according to claim 8, characterized in that the surface resistance of this fabric exceeds no more than 2 Ohms so that sufficient shielding is guaranteed.
 10. The garment according to claim 1, which lies directly against the skin of the human body, such as for example underpants (20), characterized in that it has at least an inner ply (21) with a cloth fabric and above this the at least one ply (25) made of the fabric coated with metal.
 11. The garment according to claim 10, characterized in that it consists of three plies (21, 23, 25) in the genital area, the middle ply (25) being produced from the shielding fabric.
 12. The garment according to claim 1, which is provided for wearing over at least one garment, such as for example a jacket (10) or a coat, characterized in that the at least one inner ply (15), which does not lie directly over the skin of the human body, is formed from this shielding fabric and on the outside from at least one ply (16) made of the cloth fabric and/or a moisture- or wind-impermeable plastic fabric.
 13. The garment according to claim 1, wherein the sections are equipped with at least one opening that can be closed by a zip fastener (14, 17) or the like, which openings are sealed from the rays at least in the closed state on the inside by strips (18), by the shielding ply (15) or in some other way.
 14. The garment according to claim 1, wherein the sections (11, 12, 13, 22, 24) with in each case several plies (15, 16, 21, 23, 25) are stitched or adhered to one another, the sections with the shielding fabric preferably being arranged so that they overlap at the seams (11′), so that gap-free shielding is provided on the latter.
 15. The garment according to claim 1, wherein the sections (11, 12, 13, 22, 24) with in each case several plies (15, 16, 21, 23, 25) are stitched to one another so that the garment behaves like a single-ply garment.
 16. The garment according to claim 1, wherein by providing at least one pocket (19), for example for looking after a mobile telephone, the outwardly directed wall part is in each case not assigned a shielding fabric so that when the mobile telephone is placed in this pocket (19), the mobile telephone is connected to a radio network or the like and calls can be received.
 17. The garment according to claim 7, wherein appropriate color pigments are added to the at least one outer protective layer in order to determine the color of the respective ply (15, 25). 